Bosman slams Fifa plans

Landmark figure hits out at proposals

Last updated: 15th January 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Bosman slams Fifa plans

Bosman: Fears new rules

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Jean-Marc Bosman thinks Fifa's new 6+5 plan would be a 'disaster' for the Premier League.

Bosman is the former Belgian player whose stand for freedom of contract

revolutionised football, but he is not happy with the new proposals.

Fifa want to curb the number of foreign players who can play in each team, although it is yet to be ratified.

But Bosman, whose ruling banned transfer fees for players out of contract, thinks there is real danger in Fifa's plans.

"It would be a disaster in England, not just for the clubs, but for all the foreigners too," Bosman told World Soccer.

"I'm warning the players now - we need to stand up against six plus five. Think hard. Players need to act and not always let themselves be pushed around.

Problems

"The six plus five rule would create a big problem for every English club because salaries would sky-rocket again because English players would become much more expensive.

"On the other hand the foreigners are in trouble and many of them will become superfluous. Standard Liege were able to balance their budget for the year by selling Belgium midfielder Marouane Fellaini to Everton for 18 million euros.

"They couldn't have done that without the Bosman ruling, they already have so many foreigners at Everton. He wouldn't have fitted into the (old) three plus two (foreigner) scheme.

"We're employees - Uefa and Fifa don't understand that and keep trying to circumvent that.

"We're workers, that's what the Bosman Ruling recognised. The governing bodies are trying to take back power. If we're not careful, it'll be even worse than in 1995 by 2010 (when six plus five is supposed to go into effect.)"